The Cold Case of the Pierced Woman

The only reason we found the hinges and latch when we did was one of the two narrow boards that covered them was about a quarter of an inch shorter at the bottom than the others. When Bill used his pocket knife to pry up on that board there was a click and then that part of the wall moved out a little.

It was likely the door could be opened from the inside, so Mark and I drew our pistols while Bill swung the door open. I didn't want to see Mr. Luttrell standing there with a gun pointed at us.

The door didn't open easily. There was the creak and pop of rusty hinges for the first inch or so, but after that the door opened into the room. While Mark and I covered him, Bill took the flashlight from his belt and shined it into the space and then said, "Holy Fuck."

The room was only about three feet deep and the width of one of the stalls, about twelve feet. The reason Bill had said what he did was what was hanging on the wall opposite the door. There were ropes and chains with what looked like thick leather straps attached to one end, several different whips including two that looked like the bull whips you see in western movies, and also an assortment of knives.

Mark said, "What the hell did they do with all this shit?"

I knew what it was.

"This is where Mr. Luttrell hid all the stuff he used for torturing people. I'd bet if we have the Crime Lab check those whips we'll find blood on the tips and his DNA on the handles.

Bill flashed his light in both directions and then stepped inside the room. A second later, his voice changed from strong to really quiet.

"Rich, you need to come see this."

At one end of the room was a body laying on the floor, but it was easy to see that it wasn't fresh. It looked like the pictures of mummies you see on TV. The person was short, like most women's bodies I'd seen before, but this one had short hair and was wearing jeans and a man's work shirt. That told me what we'd really found.

"I think we just found out why Mr. Luttrell hasn't been seen in twenty years."

I didn't get home until almost ten that night. It took that long for the Crime Scene techs to go through the barn and everything in the hidden room looking for any evidence they could find. They bagged everything hanging on the wall of the hidden room and took it back to the lab with them. Anything they couldn't easily get off, like the rings on the two posts, they swabbed for DNA. Everything outside of the hidden room was too dusty to check for fingerprints, but they dusted most of the inside of the hidden room and were able to get a few decent prints.

Some of those prints they lifted off a metal box that when opened revealed a leather hood that would fit over a person's head and zipped up the back. There were no holes in the hood that would let the wearer see, but there was a hole for the person's mouth and two little holes for the nose. They got a couple prints off another metal box that contained some stainless steel rods about a foot long in various diameters from maybe half an inch up to two inches. In another box, they found a rubber ball attached to a leather strap. Inside the box was a set of instructions that showed the ball in a woman's mouth with the straps buckled behind her head.

When the Coroner showed up, he looked at the skeleton for about three seconds and then turned to me and smiled.

"You always want to know the cause of death as soon as I look at the body. Well it's easy in this case. He has two bullet holes in his head, one on his right temple where the bullet went in and the second on the other side of his head where the bullet came out. Judging by the size, it looks like a.22 or a.25.

"That's a typical suicide method, but if you didn't find a gun, I'm leaning toward murder. I'll know more when I get him back to the morgue, but based on the amount of decomp and the conditions inside this room, I think he's been dead for more than ten years, probably more like almost twenty. It probably was hot and dry enough in that little room he just dried out instead of decomposing much."

I figured we hadn't just found Mr. Luttrell. We'd also found at least some of the answers to the questions I'd asked myself when I interrogated Mrs. Luttrell, one of which was why she didn't know where he'd gone. The barn was only about a hundred feet from the house, and the smell of decomp would have traveled that far if blown by even a slight breeze. Mrs. Luttrell told me Mr. Luttrell had left shortly after they'd been arrested and that was in July. With the heat Tennessee gets in July and August, that smell would have been overpowering. I figured she knew he was there because she put him there.

I didn't have a reason why, not yet, but when I put everything together, I had a theory. That theory fit most of what I knew and it was also pretty scary.

I'd have to release Mrs. Luttrell by two the next day or charge her with murder, but all I had was her hair at the burial site. It wouldn't be too difficult for a competent attorney to convince a jury that those hairs were there because of what she'd already told me. The DA probably wouldn't want to try her for first degree murder because of that. He'd settle for second degree and maybe just for just aiding and abetting and obstruction. If I could prove my theory, she'd be going to prison for a long, long time.

When I got home that night, I told Rochelle what we'd found and then told her my theory.

"While we were going through that barn, I started thinking about what you said about people who are into BDSM adopting it as a life style. You also said most BDSM couples are monogamous, but Mrs. Luttrell told me her husband was having sex with Theresa when she died. I was thinking that if that's true, they might not have been living a BDSM lifestyle. It sounds to me like one of the Luttrell's was just a sadist and was using people on the edge of BDSM to satisfy their sadistic personality. I don't think it was him because he disappeared after the guy was whipped and it looks to me like we found him in the barn.

"What I'm also thinking is there were probably others over the years. We just haven't found them yet. I checked the property records when I got back to the station, and the trees where Theresa was found are next to the property line of the Luttrell farm. I'm wondering if there are more bodies out there, either on the farm or on land that is next to the property line. It's mostly trees because they didn't farm any of it and the only people who might be on the farm were hunters who were just looking for deer or rabbits.

"I arranged for two cadaver dogs to comb the farm and surrounding property starting at daylight tomorrow morning. If they find any more bodies, we don't just have two murders. We have a serial killer, and I think that serial killer is Mrs. Luttrell. She was just too calm and collected when I interrogated her, and from what I've read, serial killers get pretty good at acting like innocent and normal people most of the time."

I was at the station at five the next morning and spent the next hours waiting on a call from the officers with the cadaver dogs. It was almost ten when I got a call from one of them.

"Rich, you need to come out here with the coroner and some Crime Scene techs. We found what I think are two bodies. We didn't do any digging, but the dogs alerted and they don't unless they've found something."

Both graves were pretty shallow and they were both relatively new. Both were also very small women. The coroner said they were both around five feet tall and probably weighed less than a hundred pounds. Based upon the amount of decomposition, he estimated the time of death at less than two years. That negated any defense position that the killer was Mr. Luttrell since he'd been dead for at least ten years.

At one-thirty that afternoon, I told the DA what we'd found so far. He listened and then said he'd ask a judge to hold Mrs. Luttrell until she was arraigned. I called booking and asked them to bring Mrs. Luttrell to an interrogation room.

When she was there, I didn't mince words.

"Mrs. Luttrell, you need to call your lawyer before you say anything. We found your husband dead in your barn, and so far we've found two other bodies on he property. You're being charged with four counts of first degree murder."

Once her lawyer got there, he didn't say much other than to ask me to give him copies of the evidence I had. Then he asked me when Mrs. Luttrell would be arraigned and I said I figured it a couple days but I was going to keep her in holding until then. He whispered something to her and then stood up and left. I sent Mrs. Luttrell back to holding and then went home. There was nothing else I could do on the case until I had the DNA and fingerprint results and the cadaver dogs finished their search of the property.

It was two days later that the Crime Lab matched a print they found on the metal box with the stainless steel rods to Mrs. Luttrell. They'd also found her print on the box with the rubber ball and had sent the ball to the TBI for DNA testing. It took another week for the DNA results to come back.

The TBI had found the DNA from the body in the barn matched the DNA that had been taken from Mr. Luttrell during investigation of the whipping case. Mrs. Luttrell's DNA was on two of the whip handles and on the handles of three of the knives and on two of the stainless steel rods. Those rods also had DNA and fecal material from several different people on them.

The two bodies had been identified by their DNA. Both were prostitutes from the area who were reported missing several years before. The TBI was able to obtain DNA from the rubber ball. The DNA on the ball wasn't a match to any of the other DNA samples and didn't have a match in CODIS either, but the DNA on the straps was Mrs. Luttrell's.

The cadaver dogs didn't turn up any more bodies, but I was almost certain there were more. Since Mrs. Luttrell treated her husband like she did, she wouldn't have sent their daughters to her mother every month just so she and Mr. Luttrell could have some mattress time alone. She needed them gone so she could kill another victim. She probably hadn't found someone every month, but she probably had killed more than we'd found so far.

My conclusion was she and Mr. Luttrell weren't in the BDSM lifestyle. She was just a sadist and had used BDSM as a cover for what she'd been doing. She'd been bringing both men and women to their farm and using them as objects for her sadistic pleasure for most of her adult life. Mr. Luttrell was technically an accomplice, but I figured he was so submissive all she had to do was threaten him once in a while. Probably his only involvement was building the secret room and digging the graves.

Since at least three of her victims were prostitutes, she'd have been pretty safe from anybody filing a complaint as hardly anybody ever reports a prostitute missing. The only problem she had was getting rid of the bodies.

I also figured that's why she married Mr. Luttrell. His daughters both said he was a great guy but wouldn't stand up to their mother. I think she identified him as a man she could make do anything she wanted, including help her get rid of the bodies. I also think the reason she killed him was he'd had enough after she cut the guy to ribbons with her whip and was going to tell the police what he knew. At least one of the things he knew was that Mrs. Luttrell had murdered Theresa Madison. She had to kill him or she'd have gone to prison for murder.

During the trial, Mrs. Luttrell's lawyer didn't really try to refute any of the evidence because it was pretty conclusive. What he tried was to have the judge order a psychiatric exam of Mrs. Luttrell in hopes of proving she was not capable of determining right from wrong and should be put in mental care until she was well. The DA stopped that by reminding the judge that the murders happened over a period of several years and that each one had to have been planned.

The last thing her lawyer tried was questioning me about how I knew Mrs. Luttrell killed her husband since he was shot and no gun had ever been found. I saw a few heads in the jury nodding when I explained that it took two patrol officers and me over an hour to find and then get into the room. Once we were inside, we determined the hidden door could only be latched from the outside, so somebody had put Mr. Luttrell in that room, shot him, and then walked out and latched the door. The only two people who could have known the room was there were Mr. and Mrs. Luttrell. Since he was in the room and dead, that left only Mrs. Luttrell. I also pointed out that if Mr. Luttrell had managed to somehow latch the door and then shoot himself in the head, the gun would have been there.

Mrs. Luttrell never admitted anything, and her lawyer never put her on the stand so he could question her. She just sat there in a chair with a bored look on her face except for when the DA showed the pictures of the grave sites and Mr. Luttrell on the floor of the hidden room on the wide screen TV. She was smiling then.

It took the jury only an hour to find her guilty. She's serving four life sentences in prison and will die there.

When I got home after the last day of the trial, Rochelle had dinner ready.

"I figured you'd want something special so I made a roast like you like. Let's eat and you can tell me all about the trial."

The dinner was great like Rochelle's cooking always is. I was feeling really good too. We'd solved a case that seemed unsolvable and a woman who would probably have continued killing people was now in prison where she couldn't hurt anybody else.

After Rochelle cleared the dishes, she walked up and put her arms around my neck.

"I've been feeling neglected lately, but I understand because you've been busy with the case. Now that it's over, think you could see your way to un-neglect me?"

With that, she backed up and pulled the top over her head. I hadn't noticed, but evidently it was one of those tops with a built-in bra because as soon as she pulled it up over her breasts, they fell free against her chest. It was then I saw another thing I hadn't noticed. Rochelle's nipples looked swollen and stiff and around each was a lacey-looking gold circle thing of some sort.

Rochelle tossed her top on the table and then shivered a little when she stroked a fingertip over each nipple.

"I see you looking. Do you like 'em?"

"You got your nipples pierced?"

Rochelle chuckled.

"No, I'm not that brave. The first time I went to see Archie, he grinned and said as big as my breasts are, nipple rings would make me look really sexy. I said I thought I'd just stay like I was. When I took Theresa's picture to Archie, the bra I wore let my nipples show a little through my top. Archie saw them and said as big as they are it would be easy to pierce them. I said I'd have to think a long time about doing that. He said if I decided to, to just let him know and he'd give me a discount.

Then he gave me these to try out. He called them nipple shields. They're kind of stretchy so I just pull on them and they open up enough to go over my nipples. When I let them go, they tighten up and squeeze my nipples a little.

"It's kind of self-sustaining too. The more my nipples swell, the tighter the shields get and the tighter they get, the more my nipples swell. Wanna see what else I got from Archie?"

I had a feeling I knew, but I said I'd love to see. Rochelle pulled down her shorts and panties and then spread her legs. Right there, hiding a little in the trimmed hair on each of Rochelle's lips was a little gold ring.

"You did get pierced there though?"

"No, these are fake too. I just spread them a little and slip them on and when they close back up, they pinch a tiny little bit and that keeps them in place. I can feel that pinch and it's kinda neat, but what's neater is when I move they pull on my lips and...well, I've been wearing these all day so are you gonna just stand there staring at me or are you gonna un-neglect me a couple times?"

Rochelle sat on the kitchen table while I stripped. As I pulled down my underwear, she eased back on the kitchen table and spread her thighs. When I pulled up a chair and sat down between her open thighs, Rochelle hooked her legs over my shoulders.

Well, un-neglecting Rochelle was pretty great after so long of not doing anything with her. The little minx was already wet, I suppose from the pinching of the nipple shields and the rings in her lips. I know when I gave her lips that first lick, she moaned and pushed my face down tighter.

She didn't say anything, but she didn't have to. The way she jerked when I reached around her legs and lightly stroked her nipples told me this wasn't going to take long.

All it took was me teasing her lips and clit with my tongue while I rolled her swollen nipples between my fingers. Once she'd heaved us both up off the table and then cried out as her body jerked into my tongue, she giggled.

"I don't think I ever want to get anything pierced, but I do kinda like these fake ones. What do you think?"

I chuckled when I licked her clit again and Rochelle gasped and then jerked up hard.

"What I think is you seemed to be half way there before I started doing anything."

Rochelle unhooked her legs from my shoulders and then sat up.

"You keep thinking on the way to the bedroom because I'm not done with you yet. This just took off the edge a little."

Well, Rochelle had one hell of an edge she wanted me to fix. I think I did, at least temporarily. I think she came twice but it was hard to tell. The first time, or what I thought was the first time, was a few minutes after she'd straddled me and impaled herself on my cock. She started riding me and after a few minutes she murmured, "Archie was right about the rings. They're pulling on me and I feel it in my...Oh, God. "

That's as far as she got because she gasped and then went from long, slow strokes to short, quick strokes. A few seconds later, she jerked a couple times and then fell down on my chest. She didn't stop stroking herself over my cock though. The strokes were just not as deep.

After a minute or two, Rochelle raised back up and started the long, slow strokes again, but this time, she leaned down and poked her stiff left nipple in my face. I was sucking that nipple hard when I felt Rochelle's thighs start to quiver. Well, at first it was a quiver, but it quickly became so strong her whole body was shaking and I had to pinch her nipple between my lips to keep it there.

I felt her get wetter, then heard her start holding her breath with each down stroke. That always means she's almost ready to cum, so I stopped just lying there and started thrusting up into each stroke she made. I had to hold Rochelle up after I did that a few times because she started easing down enough her big breast was making it hard for me to breathe.

Things happened pretty fast after that. Rochelle held her breath and pushed herself down over my cock, and then gasped when she raised back up. She had enough time to whisper, "Oh, God, Rich, now", before she slammed back down on my cock. There was no way I could hold her up since I was cumming too, so we finished with Rochelle rocking her body up and down over my spurting cock while she cried out softly into my shoulder.

Well, Rochelle started her novel about this case the next day and she's about half way through it. She's changing it a lot though. In her version, one of the patrol officers searching he property finds a young, naked woman locked inside a storage shed. She tells the officer that if he hadn't found her, she was sure she would have been killed. I won't spoil the ending for you in case you buy the book when it comes out, but like all Rochelle's crime novels, this one has a happy ending.